The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-04-25

don't know any use of having such place.
| o, young men, diSappoint the expectations
of that firm; diSappoint those customers, if
these things are expected of you. Y on may
sell an extra case of goods; you may sell an
extra roll of silk; but the trouble is you may
have to throw your soul to boot III the bar
gain.
| Again: | counsel all clerks to conquer
the trials of their particular position. One
! great trial for clerks is the reconsideration
of customers. There are people who are en-
tirely polite everywhere else, but gruf and
dictatorial, and contemplate when they
come into q store to buy anything. There
are thousands of men and women who go
| from store to store to price goods, without
any idea of purchase. They are not salts
fed until every roll of goods is brought
| down and they have pointed out all the real
or imaginary defects. They try on all
kinds of kid gloves, and stretch them out
of shape, and they put on all styles of cloak
| ana walk to the mirror to see how 1t would
look and then sail out Of the store, saying;
| 81 will not take it today" which means:
81 don't want it at ALL" leaving the clerk
| amid wreck of ribbons, and laces, and
cloths, to smooth out five hundred dollars
worth of goods-not one cent of which did
that man or woman buy or expect to buy.
Now | call that a dishonesty on the part of
| the customer. If boy runs into a store
and takes a roll of cloth Off the
counter and sneaks out into the street, you
all join in the cry pell-moll: 'Stop thief"
| When see you go into a.store, not expect
| ing to buy anything but to price things,
stealing the time of the clerk, and stealing
| the time of his employer, | say, too: stop
thiefw II were asked which class Of per
sons most need the grace of God amid their
annoyances, would say: DRY goods
clerks" All the indignation of customers
| about the high prices comes on the clerk.
For instance: A great war comes. The
manufactures are closed. The people go Off
to battle. The price of goods runs up. A
| customer comes into a store Goods have
gone up. ''How much is that worthg' "a
dollar" GA dollar Outrageous A dol
| larm Why, who is to blame for the fact
that it has got to be dollarG Does the in
| dignation go out to the manufacturers on
the banks Of the Merrimac, because they
have closed up! No. Does the indignation
mis- country seat' No. 1t comes on the
clerk He got up the warl He levied the
taxes! He puts up the rents! Of course,
the clerk!
Then great trial comes to clerks in the
fact that they see the parsimOnious side of
human nature. You talk about lies behind
the comter-there are just as many lies be
fore the counter Augustine speaks of a
man who advertised that he would, on a
certain occasion, tell the people what was
in their hearts. A great crowd assembled,
and he stepped to the front and said: Il
| will tell you what is in your hearts: To buy
cheap and sell dearw o, people of Brook
| lyn, lay not aside your urbanity when you
come into O store Treat the clerks like
gentlemen and ladies-proving yourself to
be a gentleman or lady Remember, that
if the prices are high and your purse is
lean, that is no fault of the clerks. And if
you have a son or a dauGhter amid those
perplexities OF commercial life, and such an
one comes home all worn out, be lenient,
and know that the martyr at the stake no
| more certainly needs tine grace of God than
our young people amid the seven-times
heated exasperations Of clerks life.
Then there are all the trials which come
to clerks from the treatment of inconsider-
ate employers There are professed
Christian men in this city who have no more
regard for their clerks than they have for
the scales on which the sugars are weighed.
| A clerk is no more than SO much store furnl-
tIrre No consideration for their rights or
their interests Not one word Of encourage
ment from sunrise to sunset, nor from
January to December. But when anything
goes wrong-a streak of dust on the counter,
or box with the cover off-thunder show
ers of scolding. Men imperious, capricious,
cranky towards their clerks-their whole
manner as much as to say: 'All the inter
est I have in you is to see what | can get
out of YOU"
Then there are all the trials of incompe-
tent wages. Some of you remember when
the war broke out and all merchandise went
up, and merchants were made millionaires
in six months by the simple rise III the value
of goods Did the clerk get advantage of
that rises Sometimes, not always. | saw
estates gathered in those times over which
the curse Of God has hung ever since. The
cry of unpaid men and women in those
stores reached the Lord Of Sabaoth, and the
Indignation of God has been around those
| establishments ever since; rumblng in the
carriage wheels, flashing III the chandeliers
| glowing from the crimson upholstery, thun-
dering in the long roll of the ten-pin alley.
Such men may build up palaces of mer-
chandise heaven high, but after awhile q
disaster will come along, and will put one
hand on this pillar, and another hand on
| that pillar. and throw itself forward until
down will come the whole structure crush
ing the worshipers as grapes are mashed in
q wine-press
Then there are boys in establishments who
| are ruined--in prosperous establishments
ruined by their lack of compensation. In
how many prosperous stores it has been for
| the last twenty years that boys were given
Just enough money TO learn them how to
steal Some were seized upon by the police
The vast majority of instances were not
! knOWn. ne uCdu Vi Juc liIul u5hcis
''Where is George now" 80, he isn't here
any more" A lad might better starve to
death on blasted heath than take one cent
from his employer. Woe be to that en-
ployer who unnecessarily puts a temptation
in boys way. There have been great es-
tablshTnents in these cities building marble
palaces, their owners dying worth millions
and millions, and millions who made a vast
amount of their estate out Of the blood, and
muscle, and nerve of half-paid clerks
Such men as-well, | will not mention
any name But | mean men who have
gathered up vast estates at the expense Of
the people who were ground under their
heel 90" say such merchants, "if you
don't like it here, then go and get a better
place. As much as TO say: I've got you
in my grip and | mean 10 hold you; you
can't get any other place" q, what a con
trast we see between such men and those
Christian merchants Of Brooklyn and New
York, who to-day are sympathetic with
their clerks when they pay the salary, act
ing in this way This salary that give
you IL not all my interest in You. You are
an immortal man; you are an immortal
woman; | am interested In your present and
your eyerlasting welfare; | want you 10
understand that If avn little higher up
In this store, am beside you In Christian
| sympathy Go bacK forty years 20 Arthur
Tappens store In New Yors-a man Whose
ayolst enemies never questioned his honesty.